In Iraq, the British have been `led
into a trap from which it shall be hard to escape with
dignity and honour. They have been tricked into it by a
steady withholding of information. The Baghdad communiqués
are belated, insincere, incomplete. Things have been far
worse than we have been told. Our administration more bloody
and inefficient than the public knows ... We are today not
far from a disaster.’

March
25th2 people were killed and 1 injured by US military
gunfire in al-Ratba. A Doctor at the hospital said the 3
victims were shot when their car approached the site of a US
army base.

March
26thUS forces were accused of killing up to 37 unarmed
worshippers at the Shi`ite Mustafa mosque in Baghdad.

March
27thThe Baghdad provincial governor Hussein al-Tahan said
he would suspend all cooperation with U.S. forces until an
independent investigation is launched into the killing of
many Shi'ites in a mosque on Monday 26th. After
initially denying a mosque was involved, US authorities
later
conceded
that there was.

March
28thThe U.N.-affiliated
International Organization for Migration
reported that violence has displaced more than 25,000 Iraqis
since the Feb. 22 bombing of a Shiite Muslim shrine
reported. Shelters and tent cities are springing up across
central and southern Iraq to house homeless Sunni and Shiite
families.

March
29thOfficials at the Baghdad Morgue say
around 30-40 bodies, many shot in the head and showing signs
of torture, are being found on the streets of the city every
day.

March
30thThe Kurdish authorities in northern Iraq have
sentenced an Austrian-Kurdish journalist to 18 months in
prison for criticizing Massoud Barzani. He was charged with
defamation arising from two articles which he had published
on the internet, in which he strongly criticised the
leadership of the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP), one of
the two parties holding power in the Kurdish-dominated
region of northern Iraq.

March
31stA letter from President Bush to Iraq`s supreme Shiite
spiritual leader, Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, was
hand-delivered earlier this week but sits unread and
untranslated in the top religious figure's office. The
ayatollah laid the letter aside and did not ask for a
translation because of increasing unhappiness over what
senior Shiite leaders see as American meddling in Iraqi
attempts to form their first, permanent post-invasion
government.

*This
estimate is only of media reported deaths. A peer
reviewed epidemiological survey (Roberts
et al., The Lancet, Vol 364 Issue 9448 pp 1857 1864)
estimated that in the 18 months following the invasion 100,
000 excess deaths or more have occurred. Violence accounted
for most of the excess deaths and air strikes from coalition
forces accounted for most violent deaths. Criticisms of IBC
methodology can be found at
medialens